9800 XT board layout

ASUS 9800 XT/TVD board

Back of the card

While most of ATI’s board partners stick with the conventional red PCB, ASUS defies convention by building both of their XT boards with orange PCBs. This gives the ASUS boards a look that is definitely unique, although we still prefer the aqua blue PCB/gold back plate combination ASUS uses on its GeForce FX boards or even the black PCB ASUS used on its V9280S to the orange on the RADEON 9800 XT and RADEON 9600 XT. This is of course a subjective call though.

Looking at the board design itself, you’ll see that it comes straight from ATI’s playbook. ATI makes no changes to the board’s components or their placement on the PCB. While some may find this disappointing, as we said at the outset, this is very common nowadays as the cutthroat nature of the graphics market prevents graphics card manufacturers from taking the time come up with their own board design – by the time your board design is complete and has been qualified, ATI’s next graphics product is right around the corner. This is a problem that has really hurt Tyan in particular.

Slim profile

Some of the accessories

ASUS does integrate one key addition that ATI’s reference 9800 XT specification doesn’t offer: a built-in Rage Theater chip. This little gem brings video input functionality to the ASUS RADEON 9800 XT/TVD and RADEON 9600 XT/TVD, which is where they get the “TVD” designation from. Rage Theater is the same chip ATI uses on its ALL-IN-WONDER 8500/7500 line of graphics cards (although you don’t get TV functionality on the ASUS card as it lacks a TV tuner).

Integrating Rage Theater was actually an ingenious move on ASUS’ part, as ATI’s reference driver offers built-in support for it. Therefore, you can get the full functionality of your ASUS card even if you rely on ATI’s reference driver. This is important, if ASUS had chosen another solution for video encoding they would’ve had to provide continuous support with each driver release or the card would lose that functionality when you upgraded to a newer driver. This was a problem that plagued some of ASUS’ earlier NVIDIA-based “Deluxe” cards. For connecting both cards to video devices, external VIVO (video-in/video-out) modules are included in both card’s packaging.

Note the fan connector

Heatsink on top of copper plate

ASUS’ cooling solution for the RADEON 9800 XT/TVD differs wildly from ATI’s reference board. A copper plate is placed directly over the graphics core on both cards, although in the case of the ASUS card, a more traditional heatsink is then mated on top of the copper plate.

A much more noticeable difference on the ASUS card is the dual fan cooling design. ATI relies on one large fan to keep its RADEON 9800 XT graphics core cool. Fortunately even at top speed the fans aren’t loud, and as we mentioned earlier their RPMs can be adjusted to any level you like. ASUS’ dual fan design is also used on their entire line of GeForce FX cards and has been proven to be reliable and effective (although keep in mind that this isn’t the exact same cooler used on ASUS’ V9980 Ultra and V9950 Ultra).